When I met Keith when he was in Vienna a short while ago, he mentioned that the formatting tool I put together in 2008 is sometimes unuseable. I guess the problem is more with the site (free webspace hosting), but might also have some roots in the software itself.

Bad news: I don't seem to have the source code anymore, at least not for the current version.

Good news: I used parts of the original code in another software project of mine: "Helmut's Sudoku Helper" (HSH), therefore not all was lost.

We had heavy rains last weekend, so I took some time to re-write the formatting tool, keeping the user interface and the output format and using HSH's import logic. To end the hassle with system unavailability or endless waiting times while the ads slowly creep up on the screen, I moved the app to my own site, giving it a new Name: "Helmut's Sudoku Formatter", or HSF for short.

Still, I do hope that there won't be too many bugs. I'll be monitoring this thread for a while, and there's the e-mail address in my profile, too - don't hesitate to contact me if something goes wrong.

Enjoy,
Helmut (Nataraj)

Edit Nov. 3: URL of formatter page changed to avoid problems due to move of webspace

Last edited by nataraj on Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

No, no, no, it didn't work. I pasted in a copied grid and nothing happened after I unchecked the Start Helmut and clicked Format. No error message, no nothing. It had been working perfectly.

Rule # 1: never change a running system
Rule # 2: if you do, forget about leaving the office at night

seems I violated both rules yesterday

Ah, the formatter ...

Yes, of course. When I added the uniqueness verification in the Sudoku Helper, I had to change the sequence of "script" includes in the HTML page. Since Helper and Formatter share the same underlying code, that same change had to be performed on the Formatter, too.

Fixed and tested the HSF.htm, but you might need to manually re-load the page in your browser for the change to take effect.

Helmut

----

"no error message": the problem occured during HTML load, so the formatter program was not even initialized correctly. Problems of that kind can only be detected by looking at a well hidden "Error Console" in Firefox (or the equivalent in IE), something you would not usually want to do, since there are tons of errors and warnings for most internet sites that work perfectly ...

I do not necessarily assume that you guys really want to know about the hows and whys but still I like to give at least two or three words of explanation what the problem was, why it suddenly occurred and how it was fixed. Kind of like when the Doctor does some Mumbo Jumbo and tells me: take these pills, they lower your blood pressure. It's really good for you. I feel better taking the pill with a few words than just the pill...

I do not necessarily assume that you guys really want to know about the hows and whys but still I like to give at least two or three words of explanation what the problem was, why it suddenly occurred and how it was fixed. Kind of like when the Doctor does some Mumbo Jumbo and tells me: take these pills, they lower your blood pressure. It's really good for you. I feel better taking the pill with a few words than just the pill...

Helmut,

I not only understand your Mumbo Jumbo, I understand your environment.

I spent much of my life as the business-side interface to the IT Department. I remember very well a number of times when a change was announced for "this weekend" but not implemented. Nonetheless, there was always a spike in Help Desk calls on the following Monday.

And, there were "trivial" changes that were not announced, but which ended up bringing the system down.

I'll be moving my webspace to a different webserver a week from now. Everything is set up and working fine, but in order for the new site to go live, the domain will have to point to a different address.

There should not be a problem, but just to be on the safe side, please use a slightly different URL to access the formatter:

I'll be moving my webspace to a different webserver a week from now. Everything is set up and working fine, but in order for the new site to go live, the domain will have to point to a different address.

There should not be a problem, but just to be on the safe side, please use a slightly different URL to access the formatter: